The Odeoron
Foster
Tyler Night
Noctis
VampiretwilightJunia looks Anna up and down, taking in the sunglasses, torn jeans and canvas shoes. "You still look a bit rough, Anna. You want me to make excuses for you? Trust me, I can prattle on until our dear leader is bored to tears and she's forgotten you were ever invited."
"I'm fine, very fine, great even," Anna insisted halfheartedly, carelessly abandoning her breakfast burrito onto the nearby counter.
She waved a hand wearily, but gratefully, shaking her head slowly, "I hate the morgue, but I hate angry Eleanor even more. Let's just get this over with..."
Stumbling to her feet Anna managed to catch herself against the other woman, "Say, you wouldn't happen to have any forbidden, possibly dangerous, books about liches hidden away in your library? I need to do some research."
Junia's eyes go blank as she goes into 'answering reference question' mode. "Liches? We've got a bit. Most of it's medieval and I wouldn't trust it. Monks came up with all sorts of ideas while drinking homemade wine at 3am ."
"We've do have a couple of books on recognizing and destroying phylacteries and horcruxes. They're tricky to work with, though. The Group found them during a cult raid, and they're bound with skin. I can't tell what kind of skin - something with micro-scales - and that's a preservation nightmare. I have to keep them chilled, so they're in the cold room with the film. "
" ... and, well, I know most people hate dealing with microfiche, but we've got some good shots of the Greek Magical Papyri. There's a whole section on spells to detect the different kinds of intelligent undead. Which seems kinda silly, since most of the greek undead were half-rotted and had to eat human livers or something. Seems like a tip-off. The original papyri were destroyed and the Church has them banned on the ultra-secret, slit-throat-after-reading list, but someone took some good photos."
"Tell me more about this Greek paper, it sounds promising" Anna said, pulling Junia lightly towards the door. "No doubt it will be less disgusting than whatever Eleanor wants me to take a look at."
Junia allowed herself to be pulled along. "Well, Greek Magical Papyri is a collective scholarly name for ... uh ... Hellenistic ... " Junia reevaluated her audience, "... a bunch of magic stuff written on old reeds. Anyway, there are a number of spells for locating angry spirits that are refusing to go down to Hades."
Junia noded towards a security guard as they passed through a hallway checkpoint. A left turn, a right, and they were headed down towards the morgue.
"Problem is, I think it's all goetic magic, you know? You're basically summoning a spirit and demanding that it point out any cranky dead people. I don't know if Eleanor would allow it, 'cause our track record for summoning stuff around here is kinda crap."
"It's my professional opinion that we can always ask Eleanor after we have summoned said spirit to lead us to cranky dead people with centuries of forbidden arcane knowledge," Anna quipped. The smile that teased at the edges of her mouth despite her tattered state, made it obvious that she relished the chance to perform future mischief.
Junia smiled uncomfortably. She was happy to see Anna starting to come to life, but not thrilled with the notion of pissing off the bosswoman. "I just don't want to see another repeat of last time, where we summoned a spirit that we couldn't get rid of. It got tiresome having blood drip down the walls every time we had a staff meeting."
She rolls her eyes, "Although, I guess we could just tell Clive that it's a ghost. I'm sure he's itching to use that proton pack again."
Junia's mouth snapped closed as they suddenly arrived at the door to the morgue. Two large metal doors led into the morgue, looking something like the doors to industrial refrigerators. There were security bars, locks and latches all around, but - Junia shuddered - most of them seemed positioned to keep something from getting out rather than from getting in.
Junia reached for the heavy handle ...
"I'm fine, very fine, great even," Anna insisted halfheartedly, carelessly abandoning her breakfast burrito onto the nearby counter.
She waved a hand wearily, but gratefully, shaking her head slowly, "I hate the morgue, but I hate angry Eleanor even more. Let's just get this over with..."
Stumbling to her feet Anna managed to catch herself against the other woman, "Say, you wouldn't happen to have any forbidden, possibly dangerous, books about liches hidden away in your library? I need to do some research."
Junia's eyes go blank as she goes into 'answering reference question' mode. "Liches? We've got a bit. Most of it's medieval and I wouldn't trust it. Monks came up with all sorts of ideas while drinking homemade wine at 3am ."
"We've do have a couple of books on recognizing and destroying phylacteries and horcruxes. They're tricky to work with, though. The Group found them during a cult raid, and they're bound with skin. I can't tell what kind of skin - something with micro-scales - and that's a preservation nightmare. I have to keep them chilled, so they're in the cold room with the film. "
" ... and, well, I know most people hate dealing with microfiche, but we've got some good shots of the Greek Magical Papyri. There's a whole section on spells to detect the different kinds of intelligent undead. Which seems kinda silly, since most of the greek undead were half-rotted and had to eat human livers or something. Seems like a tip-off. The original papyri were destroyed and the Church has them banned on the ultra-secret, slit-throat-after-reading list, but someone took some good photos."
"Tell me more about this Greek paper, it sounds promising" Anna said, pulling Junia lightly towards the door. "No doubt it will be less disgusting than whatever Eleanor wants me to take a look at."
Junia allowed herself to be pulled along. "Well, Greek Magical Papyri is a collective scholarly name for ... uh ... Hellenistic ... " Junia reevaluated her audience, "... a bunch of magic stuff written on old reeds. Anyway, there are a number of spells for locating angry spirits that are refusing to go down to Hades."
Junia noded towards a security guard as they passed through a hallway checkpoint. A left turn, a right, and they were headed down towards the morgue.
"Problem is, I think it's all goetic magic, you know? You're basically summoning a spirit and demanding that it point out any cranky dead people. I don't know if Eleanor would allow it, 'cause our track record for summoning stuff around here is kinda crap."
"It's my professional opinion that we can always ask Eleanor after we have summoned said spirit to lead us to cranky dead people with centuries of forbidden arcane knowledge," Anna quipped. The smile that teased at the edges of her mouth despite her tattered state, made it obvious that she relished the chance to perform future mischief.
Junia smiled uncomfortably. She was happy to see Anna starting to come to life, but not thrilled with the notion of pissing off the bosswoman. "I just don't want to see another repeat of last time, where we summoned a spirit that we couldn't get rid of. It got tiresome having blood drip down the walls every time we had a staff meeting."
She rolls her eyes, "Although, I guess we could just tell Clive that it's a ghost. I'm sure he's itching to use that proton pack again."
Junia's mouth snapped closed as they suddenly arrived at the door to the morgue. Two large metal doors led into the morgue, looking something like the doors to industrial refrigerators. There were security bars, locks and latches all around, but - Junia shuddered - most of them seemed positioned to keep something from getting out rather than from getting in.
Junia reached for the heavy handle ...
